Embracer Group has entered into an agreement to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal (~1,100 employees) and a catalogue of IPs including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, etc (total up $300M)

[Shakez]

I believe Sony will get Square or entirely abandon their endeavors of making FF an exclusive game.

Moneyhats like these will only become more expensive as Xbox gains market share.

[Hue]

@Fiendflag

Crazy news and crazy price for all those studios and IP’s! Also all this sounds great to me since the games will continue to be multiplatform plus we will probably see IP’s like Sleeping Dogs and Deus Ex (fuck yeah!) back from the dead!

About MS “missing” this deal, first of all MS won’t be able to buy everything plus if I were Phil I’d focus my attention to the Japanese industry for any potential future acquisitions since Xbox always was and still is very very well covered in terms of western games (both 1st and 3rd party wise).

Yep the positive is no platforms should be ‘losing’ games. It does seem odd that Xbox wouldn’t want to fill that narrative third person gap in their portfolio though, definitely suggests it’s not something they are interested in (atleast to me).

[Staffy]

@Proven

Square Enix seems like a mess of a company. If i am MS i stay far away.

I would like to see the look on some pony faces though if MS were to do the unexpected and snatches SE away, along with FF. Lmao.

Won’t happen, but, you know.

[Shakez]

@Fiendflag

Crazy news and crazy price for all those studios and IP’s! Also all this sounds great to me since the games will continue to be multiplatform plus we will probably see IP’s like Sleeping Dogs and Deus Ex (fuck yeah!) back from the dead!

About MS “missing” this deal, first of all MS won’t be able to buy everything plus if I were Phil I’d focus my attention to the Japanese industry for any potential future acquisitions since Xbox always was and still is very very well covered in terms of western games (both 1st and 3rd party wise).

Hope they go for Capcom, make an offer they can’t refuse.

[BadNews]

@Shakez

Hope they go for Capcom, make an offer they can’t refuse.

Yeah I think Capcom or Sega suits Microsoft more than Square.

[Kill3r7]

@Hue

Yep the positive is no platforms should be ‘losing’ games. It does seem odd that Xbox wouldn’t want to fill that narrative third person gap in their portfolio though, definitely suggests it’s not something they are interested in (atleast to me).

Agreed in part but maybe the timing didn’t workout for Microsoft.

[Failwood]

@Fiendflag

Crazy news and crazy price for all those studios and IP’s! Also all this sounds great to me since the games will continue to be multiplatform plus we will probably see IP’s like Sleeping Dogs and Deus Ex (fuck yeah!) back from the dead!

About MS “missing” this deal, first of all MS won’t be able to buy everything plus if I were Phil I’d focus my attention to the Japanese industry for any potential future acquisitions since Xbox always was and still is very very well covered in terms of western games (both 1st and 3rd party wise).

Used to be in favour of a Japanese acquisition, but lately I feel that they should secure CDPR to really secure their position as WRPG king.

[Staffy]

@Hue

Yep the positive is no platforms should be ‘losing’ games. It does seem odd that Xbox wouldn’t want to fill that narrative third person gap in their portfolio though, definitely suggests it’s not something they are interested in (atleast to me).

That would be something I don’t get at all.

They wanted Tomb Raider, a third person action adventure timed exclusive for a year and got it. I’m not sure how well it sold though. But this genre remains popular, look at Uncharted, TLOU, GTA and many more.

Also didn’t Matt Booty acknowledge the fans of this wishing for more of that on Xbox, or more like…to do better?

[Fiendflag]

@Hue

Yep the positive is no platforms should be ‘losing’ games. It does seem odd that Xbox wouldn’t want to fill that narrative third person gap in their portfolio though, definitely suggests it’s not something they are interested in (atleast to me).

Or maybe they are interested more on expanding their portfolio in a different way.

For real though, all is good since those huge IP’s and those talented studios remain multiplatform. I think that this is a rather positive outcome all things considered.

[Shakez]

@BadNews

Yeah I think Capcom or Sega suits Microsoft more than Square.

At this point I don’t think Sega would cut it anymore, Capcom would put more value faster.

[Hue]

@Kill3r7

Agreed in part but maybe the timing didn’t workout for Microsoft.

It could be, they discuss the price in the PR event and it almost seems to suggest other parties couldn’t bid right now.

[Failwood]

@Staffy

That would be something I don’t get at all.

They wanted Tomb Raider, a third person action adventure timed exclusive for a year and got it. I’m not sure how well it sold though. But this genre remains popular, look at Uncharted, TLOU, GTA and many more.

Also didn’t Matt Booty acknowledge the fans of this wishing for more of that on Xbox, or more like…to do better?

I don’t think Booty mentioned 3rd person narrative games. He mentioned tentpole releases, and we definitely got some of those when they bought ABK.

[Staffy]

@Hue

It could be, they discuss the price in the PR event and it almost seems to suggest other parties couldn’t bid right now.

Really makes me wonder wtf Sony is doing in terms of making a deal. It was said that SE was shopping for a while now, right? So Sony too knew about it for a while.

[saintsflow20]

@Fiendflag

Crazy news and crazy price for all those studios and IP’s! Also all this sounds great to me since the games will continue to be multiplatform plus we will probably see IP’s like Sleeping Dogs and Deus Ex (fuck yeah!) back from the dead!

About MS “missing” this deal, first of all MS won’t be able to buy everything plus if I were Phil I’d focus my attention to the Japanese industry for any potential future acquisitions since Xbox always was and still is very very well covered in terms of western games (both 1st and 3rd party wise).

They are already doing what I want with Japan assuming that recent hiring for big projects thing really does mean they are funding big projects from JP studios to publish them under XGS.

Sega or Capcom would be amazing but ultimately I do not expect a major publisher acquisition here.

[BadNews]

@Shakez

At this point I don’t think Sega would cut it anymore, Capcom would put more value faster.

Yeah, I think you have to go for the homerun which is Capcom and their IPs. I think capcom hits all of the checkboxes

Iconic IPs - Yes

Multiplayer games - Yes

GaaS - Yes

Games Successful in the west - Yes

Constant release of content - Yes

Multiple genres - Yes

[mr_sexy]

I expected this MS wasn’t gonna buy any purely single player studios. They want multiplayer and co-op studios .

[Shakez]

@BadNews

Yeah, I think you have to go for the homerun which is Capcom and their IPs. I think capcom hits all of the checkboxes

Iconic IPs - Yes

Multiplayer games - Yes

GaaS - Yes

Games Successful in the west - Yes

Constant release of content - Yes

Multiple genres - Yes

Getting them should be the next step really, they would cement Xbox a little better in Japan with MH.

[Fiendflag]

@Failwood

Used to be in favour of a Japanese acquisition, but lately I feel that they should secure CDPR to really secure their position as WRPG king.

Even without CDPR Xbox will be a WRPG behemoth in a few years. I think that a strong Japanese acquisition will be a better move both strategically (has the potential to change MS’s footprint/position in Japan) and content wise.

I don’t think that Jimbo’s Sony will be interested in a studio like CDPR if that is what you fear as a possible scenario.

[MJ_INC]

Some reasoning behind the low price, these studios are costing a fair whack to run while barely making any profit:

Daniel Ahmad

[TheBrightestSun]

@MJ_INC

Some reasoning behind the low price, these studios are costing a fair whack to run while barely making any profit:

Oof